Today I'm announcing the official closure of the Facebook page for Jumpseatnews.

As of now, that page no longer exists. All future news, comments, blog posts, etc. will be published only on www.jumpseatnews.com. Frankly, I should have done this a long time ago.

Facebook is a meaningless fad to me, much like the pet rock. Except, without the rock. A byproduct of the 2000's and the narcissistic era of the iPhone camera selfie.

I've discussed before why Facebook is a waste of time and how their closed proprietary network is wrecking the open internet. So, I'm not going to recap that here.

Back in, like, 2008, it was interesting to set up a Facebook account and use it for about six months. By 2009, Facebook grew tiresome. By 2010, it became lame and tedious. And by 2011, it was just boring, a time suck, and definitely passe. Now, in mid-2013, I notice that many young people don't even bother using it regularly anymore---and that Facebook is now going the way of MySpace and Windows XP. This 13-year-old nails it perfectly.

Out: MySpace, Facebook, Mice, Keyboards, PCs, and Email.
In: Path, Snapchat, Mobile Apps, Macs, and WhatsApp.

So it goes. And it will be something else in 5 years. It's been like that since the mid-1990's with Prodigy and AOL.

I was dropping my daughter off for her first day of kindergarten this morning. (This is a major milestone event for any mom or dad. For those of you readers without kids, just please trust me on this one.)

While I was holding her tiny hand and walking her into school for the first time, I actually saw a couple of moms posting to their Facebook accounts---right while their children were standing off to the side, all alone, clutching their backpacks and little lunch boxes. Another mom was typing an update while trying to get her son out of his car seat. Yes, really. Click Click tap tap type type. Unfasten child from car seat. Type type, uh, bye and have a, click click click, uh, tap tap tap, nice day!

You know what? That amazing seeing-your-child-wide-eyed first-day-of-school-for-the-rest-of-her-next-18-years moment is gone. Forever. It happens that fast. And like Ferris Buller once said: Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Yep. When Constant Facebook Checker is 92 and taking his/her last breath (barely audible over the heart monitor machine), they will feel a strong regret of missing those precious moments in life because they just had to tell their Facebook wall that they were taking their car to the mechanic for a lube job later on that day. I sure hope that your Facebook friends and likes count was worth it to you Mommy Facebookest.

It's not just Facebook to blame for causing people to behave like this. Just wait until we get wearable tech and Google Glass that's already turning people into glassholes. However, Facebook is the 400 lb gorilla at present, and, with millions of mobile users, they account for a majority of the updates.

But I digress.

During it's existence, the JSN Facebook page reached 4,797 likes. Which, by the way, is a silly and meaningless metric. There's zero financial benefit or measurable advantage to having a lot of Facebook 'LIKES' for your brand or product. Nada. Zip. Page 'likes' are really stupid if you think about it and benefit no one---except, of course, those that own Facebook stock and have a vested interest in financially supporting that corporation.

In the 12 years of running Jumpseatnews, I've experimented with all kinds of silly technology here. Some has worked (shoutbox) while some has not (chat rooms and layover hotel datasheets). Facebook became just another ineffective resource that I was having to manage. And it stopped being fun and interesting...so what's the point? I'd rather spend what precious time I have improving my own site, rather than managing a page owned and run by a 3rd party site like Facebook.

Ok, so I'm leaving now to go pick up my daughter from her first day at school. And you already know what I won't be holding, doing, and checking. This means that I'll have both my hands and arms free to give her a huge hug and to tell her how proud I am of her.